The present invention relates to a method for controlling a process for winding an acentric coil former. The invention furthermore relates also to a device operating according to the method, that is to say, for example, a control device which performs the method, or a wire wrapping machine having such a device.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
A coil former serves as the core of the winding that is to be produced. The winding is produced in a known manner from a plurality or a multiplicity of winding layers of an electrically conductive wire. In the case of coils, relays, solenoid switches, motor windings and the like, the coil former is a metal part, e.g. a parallelepiped-shaped metal part.
Acentric is used here and in the following description to describe coil formers of a type in which different points on the coil former surface are at different distances from a center point or a rotation axis of the coil former running through the center point. An example of an acentric coil former is a parallelepiped-shaped coil former in which the outer corner points are at the greatest distance from the rotation axis and in which all other points are at a shorter distance, down to a minimum distance at a point on the surface of the parallelepiped which results with a normal of one of the side faces through the center point. An acentric coil former is therefore effectively the opposite of a solid of revolution, e.g. a cylinder, in which all points on the cylinder surface are at an equal distance at least from a central or rotation axis.
Methods for controlling a process for winding a coil former and wire wrapping machines provided therefor are generally known. The winding of acentric coil formers is also known.
An important prerequisite for achieving a qualitatively satisfactory execution of a winding process is to maintain a tensile force acting on the wire during the winding process at a constant level. In the case of acentric coil formers, however, which is to say, for example, in the case of motor windings having parallelepiped-shaped coil former geometries, high surges and fluctuations in tensile force are produced during a winding cycle. Such tensile force surges can lead to the wound wire being damaged or even to a snapping of the wire. This is also disadvantageous if the wire experiences an undesirable longitudinal extension due to tensile force fluctuations and the result in the case of the wound coil is an inhomogeneity in the generated magnetic field.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to obviate prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved method for controlling a process for winding an acentric coil former which avoids the aforementioned disadvantages or at least reduces their impact. It would also be desirable and advantageous to disclose a method for controlling a process for winding an acentric coil former in which a reduction in a rotation speed of the coil former that is to be wound is avoided in order not to compromise a production capacity of a facility operating according to the method.